February 17, 2006

Documenting domestication: the intersection of genetics and archaeology

A pretty good review of the archaeology and genetics of domesticated plants and animals.

Trends in Genetics (Article in Press)

Documenting domestication: the intersection of genetics and archaeology

Melinda A. Zeder et al.

Domestication, a process of increasing mutual dependence between human societies and the plant and animal populations they target, has long been an area of interest in genetics and archaeology. Geneticists seek out markers of domestication in the genomes of domesticated species, both past and present day. Archaeologists examine the archaeological record for complementary markers – evidence of the human behavior patterns that cause the genetic changes associated with domestication, and the morphological changes in target species that result from them. In this article, we summarize the recent advances in genetics and archaeology in documenting plant and animal domestication, and highlight several promising areas where the complementary perspectives of both disciplines provide reciprocal illumination.

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